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A review by lilith_elinor
A Blunt Instrument by Georgette Heyer
3.0
I enjoyed this mystery so much more than her previous one. For one thing, it felt much tighter to me, less characters, smaller scope. The pacing was much surer, it felt like a much faster read and I was never bored. And we have the return of Heyer's outrageous, sparkling, hilarious characters. I hadn't realised how much I missed them in the previous book!
Neville is a new type of character for Heyer. He has the amoral nonchalance and scathing wit she has perfected so well, but he is also very much not an alpha, he doesn't have the magnetic charisma she gives most of her heroes. In fact he is widely recognised as ineffectual and rather useless and gets called spineless with varying degrees of affection several times in the book. He manages to be so in a hilarious and rather endearing way (though many of the characters would disagree as he can make himself unbelievably annoying). His foil is Sally, a determined crime novel author with a monocle who takes no shit from him or anyone. She's blunt and clever and their banter is what makes the book for me. Any time they are together is hilarious. To be honest I want to see more of them, a series about them dealing with mysteries would be awesome.
Heyer also pokes fun at a joyless, judgemental Christian fundamentalist who is constantly citing from the Bible, which was spot on and quite funny at times.
As for the mystery, it seems complex at first, and there was some confusing speculation about how events could have been fitted around a few known times, but really it turns out to be quite simple. In fact I'd guessed who it was half way through the book, which wasn't hard because the cast of characters was so small. It rather ruined the excitement of the reveal, but it was satisfying to be proved right.
Warning, there are a few passages with some unfortunate anti-Semitism. I also found that Helen's character was steeped in misogyny and wasn't treated fairly. In fact her marriage in trouble trope with John had a lot of potential but it wasn't very well developed. It could have been much more.
Neville and Sally definitely made it worth it.
Neville is a new type of character for Heyer. He has the amoral nonchalance and scathing wit she has perfected so well, but he is also very much not an alpha, he doesn't have the magnetic charisma she gives most of her heroes. In fact he is widely recognised as ineffectual and rather useless and gets called spineless with varying degrees of affection several times in the book. He manages to be so in a hilarious and rather endearing way (though many of the characters would disagree as he can make himself unbelievably annoying). His foil is Sally, a determined crime novel author with a monocle who takes no shit from him or anyone. She's blunt and clever and their banter is what makes the book for me. Any time they are together is hilarious. To be honest I want to see more of them, a series about them dealing with mysteries would be awesome.
Heyer also pokes fun at a joyless, judgemental Christian fundamentalist who is constantly citing from the Bible, which was spot on and quite funny at times.
As for the mystery, it seems complex at first, and there was some confusing speculation about how events could have been fitted around a few known times, but really it turns out to be quite simple. In fact I'd guessed who it was half way through the book, which wasn't hard because the cast of characters was so small. It rather ruined the excitement of the reveal, but it was satisfying to be proved right.
Warning, there are a few passages with some unfortunate anti-Semitism. I also found that Helen's character was steeped in misogyny and wasn't treated fairly. In fact her marriage in trouble trope with John had a lot of potential but it wasn't very well developed. It could have been much more.
Neville and Sally definitely made it worth it.